Litter Bug



This cute fellow can come right out of your recycle bin.



You will need:
Raid your recycle bin and use your imagination! We used newspapers, straws, a bottle cap, a jar lid, and a paper hole punch from our hole puncher.
Also, have handy: yarn or string, googly eyes, marker and glue.

How to:
The key to this craft is using your imagination to make your litter bug look however you want it to look. We started by balling up the newspaper and securing it with string. Straws became legs, caps became hats, more yarn became hair.

Attach googly eyes a nose and a smile and you are set.

Thoughts:
What better way to teach about recycling than to show a child how to reuse something? I took the opportunity to teach Elliott a bit about caring for the Earth and explaining the concept of "Litterbug" to him. (Thank you Wall-e, as well!!) That came back to me when, a few days after doing this craft, we were walking into the grocery store behind some rather, er, tough looking characters who threw some trash on the ground. Elliott, having witnessed this pronounced loudly, to anyone within hearing distance (including said offenders), "Mommy, they're Litterbugs! Litterbugs!!!!" 

Yay, him. Boo, them. I have actually seen Elliott pick up trash off the ground and throw it away. Ironically, he has no problem throwing it on the floor in our house.

Almost a year later, and this little guy still gets some playing time.

Elliott's Edict:
We still have it. I liked putting the straws on it. And the smile. And the googly eyes. And the two hats. Two! That was a good craft.

Hatching Spider's Nest

Eeks! Spiders!





You will need:

• Glue, glue and more glue (We used 2 bottles!)
• 2 bowls
• Balloon
• Cheesecloth or gauze, cut into 12 (or so) 3x18 inch strips
• Fishing line
• Plastic spiders (I used a bag of spider rings from the Dollar Store and snipped the ring portion off most of the spiders with scissors.)
• Sewing needle

How to:

1. Empty glue bottle into a small bowl and dilute with water. Stir well. (I suggest emptying about a quarter of the bottle at a time.)
2. Inflate balloon and set inside other bowl to give you a stable working space.
3. Dip the strips of cloth into glue mixture and gently squeeze out excess. Spread strips flat over the surface of the balloon, leaving a few small gaps and an opening near the top of the balloon.




From the look E's face you would think this wasn't fun!



4. Let glue dry (overnight), occasionally rotating the balloon to speed of the drying process.
5. Pop the balloon and remove.

6. Use sewing needle to thread a piece of fishing line at top of nest to make a hanging hook. (Knotting one end of the line should anchor it to the inside of the nest. I used gauze and found I needed two knots to hold the line in place.)
7. Thread more line through nest and tie several spiders on to pieces. Have some spiders poke out of gaps in cloth. If using spider rings, keep some intact. I snipped a small slit in some spots on the nest and tucked the ring portion through the cloth to hold the spider in place.

Stock up on glue.

Thoughts:

This is a really neat Halloween decoration! But holy cow, does it ever use a lot of glue! We went through one full bottle and two half bottles. The cloth just soaks the glue right up. The coolest part of this craft? The awesome sound the deflating balloon made as it was pulling away from the gauze. It sounded like fireworks!

Attaching the spiders to the line was not a kid friendly activity, but I had Elliott sort the spiders for me (by color and by those who had the ring portion cut off) and it kept him involved. This was a fun one and the final result is really cute.

Elliott's Evaluation:
I like all the spiders hanging from the strings. I liked putting the cloth on the balloon. We have our nest in the kitchen so we can see it.

Grassy-hoppers

A super-cute way to welcome Spring!

You will need:

• Cardboard egg carton
• Green paint
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners (We used black and white.)
• Soil
• Grass seed
• Black marker
• Glue

How to:

1. Cut egg carton into three-cup pieces.
2. Paint outside of cups green. Let dry.
3. Attach googly eyes with glue. Draw a smiley face with marker.
4. Shape pipe cleaners into antennae and legs. Attach to carton with glue.
5. Place small amount of soil in each cup. (Don't fill it to the top! Leave enough room for water.)
6. Sprinkle each cup with grass seed.
7. Place in a sunny spot and water daily. (Sprouts should show up after a few days.)

Thoughts:

This was a really cute project and reminded me (daily) that Spring was right around the corner. The cardboard egg cartons are very absorbent, so it's important to remember to water your seeds every day. (I'm not sure if Styrofoam cartons would work, so if anyone tries, let me know.)

Ghost Prints

A spooktacular art project!

You will need:

• Construction paper, cut into desired size
• Non-toxic paint (tubes work best)
• Googly eyes
• Glue

How to:

1. Drizzle paint onto paper. Try to avoid getting too close to the edges to prevent spills.
2. Fold paper in half and lightly rub. (Saying "Booooo!" usually helps.)
3. Open and voila! a ghost appears.
4. Add googly eyes.

Thoughts:

This was a project we did over and over last Halloween and it was always a huge hit. We even did it as a craft at our Halloween party and every child enjoyed it.

Options:

Once the paint dried, I cut around the shape and hung fishing line through a hole and hung them all over the house.

When making ghosts, white paint (or glow-in-the-dark paint!) looked best on black paper. But the nice thing about this craft is that you aren't limited to just ghosts. You can use any color paint and paper to make creepy bugs, monsters or aliens. (The more googly eyes the better!)